Hongdae Pocha Korean BBQ

Lively Korean BBQ Spot with K-Pop Vibes – Hongdae Pocha Hongdae Pocha Korean BBQ is a fun, youth-oriented spot serving tasty Korean dishes in a lively setting. K-pop music videos play nonstop on big screens, and the upbeat music creates a high-energy vibe — perfect for casual hangouts. The food is flavorful and satisfying, especially for Korean BBQ lovers. Service is friendly, though a bit slow at times. Great food, great music, and a true Korean street-style dining experience.

Good quality Korean food with the upbeat vibe made me feel like being in Korea. Even the side dishes were nice. Strawberry slush soju was refreshing but not that impressive. They are doing a promotion to serve one complimentary noodle soup/kimch soup when you order pork belly. Kimchi noodle soup has an eye opening taste, so you should try it!

Had such a great time at Hongdae Pocha Korean BBQ! The pork belly was super fresh and grilled up perfectly—crispy on the outside and juicy inside. The side dishes were generous and delicious, and the dipping sauces really tied everything together. What I loved most was the vibe—it felt like stepping into a casual pocha spot straight out of Hongdae, Seoul. The tin barrel seating, the energy, and the laid-back atmosphere made it such a fun place to hang out with friends. And don’t leave without trying the fried rice at the end—they cook it right on the grill with all the leftover flavors from the BBQ. So good! Definitely recommend this spot if you're looking for solid Korean BBQ and a fun, casual night out. Will be back!

SIZZLING PORK BELLY HEAVEN! Their side dishes are delicious and perfect to accompany the BBQ pork belly. Wrap it in lettuce with garlic, ssamjang, and a little kimchi for the perfect bite.

Typical korean restaurant that serves comfort korean food. Taste is exactly what you'd expect. Came here for about 3 times now, and I would say the service is lacking. I know it's not typical for a korean restaurant to provide checkbacks or anything like that, but isn't it a standard to at least check water jugs? If there's a tip percentage on the payment machine, there should be some service expected from the servers, at least in my opinion. We flagged down 3 different servers to take our order, but it took 15 minutes until we were tended to. I'm not trying to act special or needy, but seeing 2 servers downstair chatting and checking their phone while laughing on a slow Sunday evening time is just unacceptable. Nothing wrong with having fun at work, but at least do it after the customers are helped. We always enjoy the fried chicken, but the first batch of rice served to us with the hotpot were undercooked. Took some time to get a server's attention to have it exchanged. We were able to get a pair of new rice but they were cold. After the meal, I tipped 10% for the bare minimum service we received, but an attitude from the male server (which I assumed was the floor leader), that is crazy. Do you expect me to tip at least 15% if I even had to go downstairs to get water myself?

Haven’t been here for a while, and was there with a group of ten on a Saturday night. They notified us gratuities is included for large table, which is fine, but we got zero service. Had to keep asking refill for water and small dish, they didn’t clear table and dishes wouldn’t fit so we moved the dirty dishes to another empty table ourselves, waited a long time for food/drinks, etc. I could tell they were very short staff and they were running around between upstairs and downstairs but then the gratuities should not be automatically included then as we received zero service. When paying, I brought this up to the server that I understood is their policy but gratuity should not be automatically 15% when there was zero service and food and drinks were late, but they still charged us anyway. Will not return again🙃

The vibe is just like being in Hongdae, Seoul colorful lights, K-pop, and a casual pocha-style atmosphere. Their sweet chili fried chicken is a must-try. Portions can be a bit small for the price, but the experience makes up for it.

Loved the pork belly here — super juicy and flavorful! Portions are big too, you definitely get your money’s worth.

Fried chicken and grilled fresh pork belly are amazing! Service was also great, even though we were the only table seated upstairs.

Came here one evening after dinner to keep the night going and it was so fun. Despite the lower ratings for this store, I had a great time. We were seating immediately in the loud and lively restaurant and service throughout the whole time was very quick. My friend and I just wanted to order drinks, so it was a bit of a disappointment that they also made us order food (it was a requirement), especially because we had just eaten dinner. Maybe it was because we had just eaten, but the food was alright. The side dishes in my opinion were downright bad, but the Korean Army Stew that we got wasn't awful, but not the best. I just wish it was fine to order a small snack with drinks or something rather than be forced to do an entree.

Nice spot to hang out in the evening to have a few drinks + snacks--good atmosphere, attentive staff, and solid food

Good is good, actually pretty good. Fried chicken is very juicy and flavour is amazing. Other dishes were pretty authentic as well. Servers were pretty fast. The reason for four star is due to the fact that there were one bowl of kimchi served for table of three. It's the only Korean restaurant I been to that doesn't serve kimchi. Maybe it's a Vancouver thing, back in Toronto, always at least 4-8 dish of kimchi served

I was a little hesitant about going here due to the reviews, but I found my experience at Hongdae to be positive. My girlfriend and I weren't too hungry but were craving something late at night and Hongdae seemed to be calling our names. The servers were nice and quick even without using the service bell. We ordered 2 orders of the pork belly (their most popular menu item, check out my pics attached to this review) and the waiter kept asking if that is all we wanted to order. There was a feeling of pushing to order more even though we thought that ordering 2 full food items for 2 people was sufficient so we stood our ground. The servers cooked the meat for us so we did not have to do much besides enjoy! I do want to take a half star off for the constant nudging we received to order more but also a half star for no rice coming with our orders. We had to purchase a side of rice on top of the ~$70 we spent on the 2 orders of pork belly. Overall, I would recommend checking this place out if you are looking for a late night Korean BBQ run!

This is more of a drinking joint than an eating place. The dishes like grilled pork belly and fried chicken are more for sharing than a single serve. Food is pretty average.

$20 for the seafood pancake with barely any batter and all just green onions? No thanks. And the pancake was not good at all. Never coming back. If you want a Korean bar, go somewhere else. Literally across the street. With reasonable prices and service.

I had major Korean cravings and I remember that Hongdae Pocha Cafe had 50% for students, so what better place to go than here? The food was pretty good, I think some of the dishes just had too much sauce. It's quite dark inside with loud music. My friends and I ordered three dishes, the chicken with rice (bibimbap style), ddeokbokki, and the spicy noodle (jajangmyeon style). My personal favourite had to be the noodle dish because it was just so addicting. The sauce coated the noodles perfectly. I had to get ddeokbokki because it is one of my all time favourite dishes. The time around, it's not as spicy as most places I've had, but it still tastes great. Lastly, the chicken with rice, it was alright. I personally am not the biggest fan of how loud the music is, but it's not horrible. I'd definitely come back. The 50% is a deal too hard to pass. Even without the 50% off, the price of each dish is very reasonable.

Food was fine .. Ive tried chicken runner, fried chicken, soondae, and chive pancake. Chive pancake was too oily. Other foods were fine.. I want to write about service. There has two female servers and one male server. It seems he works everything. Other two female servers were acting like they are working and they were talking very long time. I was waiting for order 40 mins. I visit counter, but she kept saying we will be there. Also, they threw foods away on table. I understand its heavy and they are tired. It seems not right. Hope this place should educate their servers well, and they shouldnt order newbie server like slave.

The food is fine but SERVICE is terrible. Staffs was so unkind and rude to customers.m Especially the lady server. I will not come back here again

I ordered 2soju and I soy chicken. A portion of soy chicken is tooooo much for 2people. I wanna eat another dishes but so full 1 plate.

I had a craving for Korean streetfood/ homemade cooking. Fulfilled my cravings at the Korean plaza located at the west end of Robson st. I found Hongdae pocha cafe. Its related to Sura restaurant. Specifically, I wanted to have sujebi - dough flakes in soup. Hongdae had them and even allowed me to custom add it to their tofu jigae (soup). It was good! Sujebi is simple home food, so it's difficult to find in Korean restaurants. But they had it here! I have to come again. The soju and alcohol prices are a little high, but food is reasonable (not cheap). Pretty busy and happening place, especially on weekend nights.

Super great restaurant to satisfy my Korean cravings! We had a large party of 10, and one of the servers was super sweet, and she set up a large table for us ahead of time even though they technically do not take reservations on Saturday. The food came out quickly and the portions were huge!!! I especially love the Volcano Chicken and the Chicken Galbi. They were so tender and delicious, and the sauce was amazing! The atmosphere was very fun, and we had such a great time! The best part is the price. Gratuity, tax and soju included, it was only $13 per person. Such great value for excellent food!

Want to feel like you're in a club, and eat at the same time? This is the place! This place has a great atmosphere for late night eating and drinking. Their soju cocktails are good, and the food is delicious. I will go there every chance I want to hang out and get buzzed.

Their food was pretty good. But most of the clerks are unfriendly, and also their expressions were not good. I'm offended about it. Unfortunately, some of the tablewares are dirty...

3.5. Hongdae Pocha is a great place for drinks and sharing food. We ordered the chicken, chicken gizzard, and tofu kimchi. The tofu was our favourite, kimchi was fresh and had lots of flavour. It is very dark and very loud inside, and tables are very small, so the atmosphere might not be for everyone. We would maybe come back if in the area, but would not go out of our way.

Great spot on west end to try w friends Big portions and good quality food, best to share w a group of 4+ so you can order more than just a couple dishes Good prices on beer and pretty authentic Korean food Open late night is huge plus, one of the few spots in downtown past 11 with good quality food

So I don't usually do reviews but I decided to do this for the public good coz its new...and my friend and I thought it would be hilarious. As I saw their advertisements on Facebook, my friend and I decided to check them out. The place was spacious with 2 floors. They had booths but also open round tables with stools. The lighting was dark (potentially romantic?). My friend and I were very amused with the wall shelf completely filled with ketchup and sirarcha bottles. Their menu is pretty limited with 8 items. We went for the bbq tray and the egg pancake roll. While we were waiting, the servers came out with some side dishes, which included kimchi soup, shredded cabbage with mayo, seaweed and croquettes. I think it is service because they are so new still (4 days since opening?) After a while, our food came. The bbq tray had assorted meats on it. It included grilled sausages, pork belly, squid, beef patties, ribs and shrimp in addition to some veggies. I especially liked the ribs. The egg pancake was very visually appealing but my friend didn't think it was worth it. We also ordered cokes and rice to go with the food. Overall it was pretty good. The service was great - maybe because we were one of the only customers there at the time the server could be more attentive. He checked on us several times. Our bill came to around 65$ excluding tip. We decided to take one star off because it was a little pricey. But its still good so I would recommend giving it a try :)

- Nice atmosphere, I actually really like the low chairs and rounded tables - Crowded, loud - Party pooper security guard outside, kept nagging about "City of Vancouver Noise level laws" even though we were just having a smoke, and its Robson street, not some residential area - Huge fried chicken, drinks are expensive - Tiny washrooms

Really good Korean bar/snack food! We came here over the weekend around 7pm and was seated immediately. However, shortly after a line started to form... so go early! We were told that we have a 3 hour dining limit which was more than enough since we only planned to stay for dinner. Most people stick around to hangout and drink. We tried the gochujang soup (pork belly, potatoes and veggies - moderately spicy), potato and corn pancake and soy chicken. Everything was really tasty! The soy chicken was mostly chicken skin which was AMAZING. Service is meh but I'd say that's typical of these types of places. I'll definitely be back!

Overall not bad, but the kind of food is very few. The amount of the soup is too small compared to the price. atmosphere is good. it's like korean style pocha.

One of my favorite Korean places in Vancouver located on Robson (Denman area). One of my favorite dishes has to be the black bean Ramen.

The worst restaurant I've iver been during my vacation to canada. The worst part is the SERVICE. SERVICE is slow AF. The unmatured korean servers don't know what their doing nor has a knowledge of the menu of what their serving. The place is packed for a reason I could not figure out. Do not order Sundae bbokeum, and greenonion fried chicken. They are the worst korean food listed in my life. I highly suggest you to avoid this place unless you're drunk and can't taste anything.

The fact it satisfies my craving for Korean food makes me super happy! Perfect place to hang out after shopping!

Mediocre food and horrible service. Some of the servers were very rude. I would never go back. I went with my friends and one of them got yelled at by a female server for not having any local IDs on him. The way she talked to him was very condescending, rude and unprofessional. We left after that and I will never go back or recommend this place to anyone.

A good Korean restaurant on the West end of Robson Street. Paid and free street parking. Numerous competing Korean restaurants nearby. But this is a good food too

There are so many better Korean restaurants than this place! Everything is overpriced, no flavour and it's just loud. I am glad I didn't spend a fortune and came out of this place full but not impressed. Try MDG on Denman street. Also this place doesn't have the regular Korean side dishes. They gave some cabbage side dish which was ok. Plus this place is extremely loud and service is ok as well. I won't be coming here again.

This place is super easy to describe. Basically....it's liiittttt fam This place is super Korean. Everyone who works there is Korean, everybody who goes there basically is Korean, and the music is throwback Korean pop and stuff. Very different from Zabu (does anybody still go there). During weekdays it's not busy but during the weekends it is super busy. If you get here around 9/10 you can expect it to be jam packed with a bunch of people waiting outside to get in. The place is two floors and they literally have shoved all the tables and seats they can. It gets pretty crowded and it can get pretty touchy, so if you don't like that..definitely come earlier or during the week day. The food is pretty good. Typical drinking food. Chicken, odeng tang, egg roll, etc etc. Pretty standard I would say. The drinks are pretty good as well. They have all the fruit sojus and my favourite rice wine. It is a little pricey but when is drinking at a Korean place not pricey.. Come for a party guys it's bumpin~

Our server edward went above and beyond. absolutely the best service we've ever had. 5 stars top notch

So, we finally returned to this place. There's a lot of choice on Robson! Anyway, ordered the Korean rice wine..which was served authentically in the teapot (on ice, which was a nice touch) Ordered the blood sausage mess, which was tasty, but quite spicey..so be forewarned Also, ordered the Calamari..which was very tasty..real calamari! The portion was huge, too..so keep that in mind Atmosphere was very lively..and the service buttons was well received. Overall, a good addition to Korea Town

Decent korean food bar. I love their cabbage pickles. Rice cake.was a hit. For me.this is a affordable spot to grab some yummy sides everyday.

The food is really good! And the price is also good specially for students!!! I recommend!!!

The food is quite good, very spicy. Some of the food has a lot of spice and can be quite salty if you didn't have rice with it. The portions are quite large, but I would only go for the 50% student discount. The atmosphere inside is dark and the music is loud, don't go here expecting to talk a lot with your friends! Otherwise great food.

I just have to say I love the overall appearance of the place and the atmosphere. It's taking retro and korea together to create this look that I dig. From the font, to the old korean commercials they play on the tv, I was mesmerized. The owners had a vision and it was executed very well. Now onto the important stuff, the food. We ordered the carbonara rice cake I believe and the poutine fries. And my oh my the portions were huge. We only ordered those 2 things and I didn't know if it was enough for 3 people but we would have been fine with just ordering 1 thing because we had mighty leftovers. I get full just thinking about it. As for drinks we got the pitcher of kokanee and, this is coming from someone who isn't a huge fan of beer, but it tasted great. And then grape soju and yogurt soju. Both tasted delicious but I should note that they make the yogurt soju and they barely put any soju in it. It should be assumed that they skimp on the soju but when I tasted it, it was confirmed that it tasted too delicious to taste like any soju was in it. Would still order it again doe. As for service, you won't be getting much! It seems the employees purposefully avert their eyes and are hard of hearing because even if you yell after them they disappear into the abyss only for you to flag down the next victim, I mean employee, who happened to accidentally make eye contact with you. Another thing that was annoying was that they kept playing the same songs over and over and over again. Why, just why. If I was an employee there I would run away. And apparently they give students 50% off if you come before a certain time, which we did but they still wouldn't give it to us because we didn't sign in before hand or some dumb excuse like that. So if you're a student ask before you order cos they will probably make up some shit and make you pay full price.

The food was okay (we had the black bean noodles and poutine) , but the abysmal service led me to leave a two star review. All the staff were very friendly; however, we waited over an hour for our soy chicken to arrive and even after reminding the waiters twice that we have been waiting for a while, we continued to see many other tables that arrived very recently receiving the same dish that we have been waiting for over an hour for. Only when we informed the staff that we were not willing to wait for the chicken and asked for the bill did they quickly throw together our dish. The staff was kind enough to give us the chicken for free, hence the two stars, but the chicken ended up being overwhelmed with batter and very little actual chicken. Friendly staff but terrible kitchen.

This place was a total trip. It was packed at midnight and blasting 80s kpop. I couldn't stop watching the corny old Korean TV commercials they were showing on all the screens. Staff was very friendly and recommended a great takeout meal for us. The Pork Belly was super yummy and the Chewy Noodle really hit the spot with the fresh veggies and squid (really fun to eat, too...they gave us each a glove). I highly recommend this place for the great late night vibes and the super friendly staff.

The service here is impossibly awful awful AWFULLL!!! Me and my boyfriend both had student specials. But apparently bcus my school doesn't have an expiry date or set amount of time to finish ur schooling, our waitress didnt believe I still went to that school. When i gave her more info on my phone and other records, she stuck an "ok" finger IN MY FACE. The whole process took 20 minutes just to fucking order!!! Then our food arrived 45 minutes later!!!!! The waitresses and waiters roll their eyes left and right, and they seem to really hate their job. They keep grunting and moaning, and it makes the experience so depressing. They have priority to one table throughout the whole experience bcus I think they were friends. They even let them skip waiting line!!!!!! All my friends have had similar experiences and I've seen these reviews on other sites too.

They have really good deal on Sun/Wed/Thur 3pm-8pm. Food is authentic Korean with K-pop playing in the place.

This was one of my favourite few spots that I like to enjoy with my friends and business clients. I watched Hong Dae Pocha from its infancy to now. I only had two bad experiences here. My last one was the worst. When asked to see the manager of the place. No one would help me or to see why I was not satisfied with my service. Maybe it's Hong Dae Pocha new policy. To ignore their customers request. As one of the regulars. I usually tip 15% to 45% base on Service. I work in the hospitality/service industry, it's to serve and respect your clients. They called the cops on me and instead of trying to see why the customer is not happy. Thankfully we live in Canada and I did nothing wrong but be a angry customer. The police let me go. Sometimes all you need to do is de-escalate the situation and make the customer want to come back. But hey..... customer service what do I know? = 0 don't complain here because if you do the police might show up.

this restaurant doesnt open on time. We had to wait for more than 20mins for them to open...

Interesting customer service. First of all, a staff approached us speaking Korean (None of us could speak Korean) and told us we only have the table for 3 hours. Second of all, me and my friend were waiting for our friends at a big table. We were asked to move to another small table THREE TIMES (with a lot questions and checking on us every 10min). In contrast, the table next to us with 3 Korean guys waiting for their friends did not get asked to move AT ALL, not to mention that the guys were already there for a while before we arrived. We were told 2 bigger parties are waiting outside the door but I checked: No one was waiting. A bit of unpleasant experience overall. However, Restaurant has a great throwback feeling for the 90s. Food is okay.

Exceptional atmosphere, everyone is so friendly and welcoming. A great place to go if you want to drink with your friends. Food portions are a little on the smaller side though.